Samsung SDS Expands OpenAI and Anthropic Partnerships in AI Push

Samsung SDS, the IT arm of the South Korean conglomerate Samsung, announced on September 8, 2026 at its annual REAL Summit in Seoul that it is expanding its cooperation with OpenAI and Anthropic. The company became the first organization from South Korea to join OpenAI's Daybreak Partner program, and earlier, in July, it signed a strategic partnership with Anthropic. On top of that came an announcement of its entry into robotics.

Two fronts of collaboration

The partnership with OpenAI centers on the Daybreak program, an initiative focused on cybersecurity in which vetted partners get access to the latest models for vulnerability testing and securing software development processes. Samsung SDS was already the first authorized ChatGPT Enterprise consultant in Korea, so joining Daybreak deepens an existing relationship with OpenAI rather than starting one from scratch.

The second pillar is Anthropic. The agreement was signed on July 24, 2026 in San Francisco, in the presence of Samsung SDS CEO Lee Jun-hee and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. The ceremony was also attended by South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee, underscoring the importance both the Korean government and the conglomerate itself place on the partnership.

This strategic collaboration is a starting point for jointly leading the growth of the domestic AI market by combining Anthropic's technology with Samsung SDS's expertise - Lee Jun-hee, CEO of Samsung SDS

Scale of Claude deployment

The scope of the Anthropic agreement covers three elements: joint marketing and proof-of-concept projects aimed at creating new AI services for Korean companies, a training program for AI engineers specializing in Claude, and the rollout of Claude Enterprise across the entire Samsung group. According to figures given at the signing, 70,000 employees across 20 Samsung-owned companies already have access to Claude Enterprise.

That indicates this is not a pilot but a group-wide rollout spanning both Samsung Electronics and the rest of the group's companies. Samsung SDS acts as the integrator here, supplying AI tools for internal use while also selling similar services to external clients in Korea.

Client zero strategy

The company describes its approach as client zero: it first deploys its own AI transformation (AX) solutions internally, across seven core processes including software development, procurement and quality management, before offering them to clients. CEO Lee Jun-hee stressed at the REAL Summit that this is about more than saving time and money.

AX is not just about reducing time and costs. It means completely redesigning the way companies and work are done, from the ground up - Lee Jun-hee, CEO of Samsung SDS

Move into robotics

Alongside its software partnerships, Samsung SDS also announced it is expanding beyond digital operations into robotics. The company said it will launch a platform for centrally controlling production robots and equipment in 2027, and it has entered a strategic partnership with Walden Robotics, a global maker of humanoid robots, to automate manual manufacturing tasks.

This is a step toward so-called physical AI, combining language and agentic models with industrial robotics, a direction other tech giants are also investing in. For Samsung, it means extending its AX offering beyond software consulting and integration toward direct control over production lines.

Market significance

For Polish companies tracking the enterprise AI market, this case shows how large Korean and Asian conglomerates are building multi-vendor strategies, using both OpenAI and Anthropic models rather than tying themselves to a single supplier. The scale of the rollout, 70,000 Claude users within a single corporate group, also shows how fast demand for enterprise licenses is growing among large Asian organizations, directly boosting revenue for both American AI labs.

For Samsung SDS itself, the OpenAI and Anthropic partnerships are part of a broader effort to transform from a traditional IT integrator into an AI transformation consultancy, selling turnkey enterprise deployments to other companies in South Korea and the region. The 2027 robotics plans suggest the company wants to extend this model to the industrial sector as well.